Debuting by Riding the Returnee’s Bus Chapter 151

It was betrayal from the one I’d trusted most—Kim Haejun.

 

The fact that the one member who had, until now, been the group’s most level-headed suddenly caused such an unexpected incident left my mind reeling. To put it bluntly, if Kim Taeyeol or Jung Taehee had caused a much more serious accident, I wouldn’t have been as shaken.

 

This applied to me, and it applied to the other members. When the ones who were supposed to be the anchors wavered, those below them naturally wavered as well. Perhaps because everyone had internally thought of him as the real leader or sub-leader, the shock hit even harder.

 

In fact, even Joo Wooyoung, who had navigated through all sorts of trials in another world, and Jegal Hwi, who must have experienced countless events in a place presumed to be the Murim, couldn’t hide their bewilderment. The guy who had decapitated an evil dragon and subjugated a Demon King, and the guy who might or might not have been a Young Master of the Jegal Clan, were both at a loss over this slip of the tongue.

 

The others were even worse. Kim Taeyeol looked like his soul had left his body, and both the tears and the smiles vanished from Baek Suhyeon’s face. Jung Taehee, who presumably still harbored a grudge against Kim Haejun, seemed to be holding onto his sanity better than the rest, but watching him made my own mental state feel like it was being whittled away.

 

My own condition wasn’t much different from the others. I was acting like nothing was wrong, but I was just as flustered. Even so…

 

‘I have to move. I have to do something.’

 

I remained firm in the thought that the encore stage had to proceed as planned.

 

‘You guys, get your heads straight… we have to do the encore. For now, that’s all we’ve got. Right? Being flustered is one thing, but this is unavoidable.’

 

We had to do what we could do.

 

‘It’s all or nothing anyway.’

 

The problem was that the other members weren’t following my lead. At least Jung Taehee, after realizing my intent, joined in on the wailing live… but as expected, everyone else didn’t seem to have the presence of mind to dance and sing properly.

 

‘This is not good. Isn’t it worse if we’re all out of sync like this?’

 

It was our first music show win—I didn’t want to show a picture of us just doing whatever we wanted and then coming down… but seeing that exact picture being drawn right now made my heart ache.

 

To make matters worse, Joo Wooyoung seemed to think that comforting Kim Haejun was more important than performing the emotional encore. He was still busy comforting Haejun.

 

It was absolutely the right thing to do. It was the righteous action befitting Joo Wooyoung, who prioritized his comrades above all else.

 

If there were no cameras, it would have been a truly noble act.

 

‘Seriously, that man only sees one side of things. Wooyoung hyung, do you really need to advertise the fact that Kim Haejun made a mistake?’

 

In response to his attention, Kim Haejun’s eyes began to tremble.

 

Even among the <Aether> who were cheering hard, whispers could be heard. The moment the fans realized something was off about the atmosphere on the encore stage, they started cheering even louder.

 

“I love you, <Fantasia>!”

 

“Congratulations!!!!”

 

They sent these voices, but they couldn’t possibly be unaware that something was wrong.

 

‘Sometimes it feels like the fans know our situation better than we do.’

 

It felt like we were escalating a problem that could have been brushed off as no big deal. No, we were definitely escalating it.

 

‘This is so frustrating.’

 

All they had to do was move. Act like it wasn’t a big deal and move on.

 

‘A mistake is just a mistake… Sure, the timing was awful, and he let confidential information slip on live television, so there’ll be some noise, but if we just brazenly push through it, it’ll be over. If you all keep acting like this in front of the cameras and the fans, it’ll look like we’ve committed some unforgivable crime. Especially Haejun hyung.’

 

I tried to pull Joo Wooyoung in while dancing and somehow drag Kim Haejun into the emotional encore, but it wasn’t sticking. I didn’t want to see hate comments saying we were insincere on the encore stage when we were the ones who dropped a bomb, but looking at how things were going, .it was like we were doing everything possible to earn criticism.

 

‘Hyung… you really haven’t come to your senses.’

 

We shared another hug and said our thanks to the fans, but the atmosphere on-site was the worst.

 

‘It would have been better if we didn’t do the encore at all.’

 

Naturally, as we descended from the stage, the mood only grew heavier. It wasn’t serious enough that I wanted to lash out, but I felt the urge to add a few words. This applied not just to Kim Haejun, but to the members who had lost their way in the confusing atmosphere.

 

“…….”

“…….”

 

The narrow passage leading back to the waiting room felt unusually long.

 

“…….”

“…….”

 

Kim Haejun, unable to bear the silence, broke it first. Sensing an opportunity, I responded immediately.

 

“…….”

“…….”

 

“I… I messed up, didn’t I? Right? What do I do? I just….”

 

“You did make a mistake.”

 

“Uh….”

 

“But no one is going to attack you just for a simple… slip of the tongue.”

 

“…….”

 

“Of course, the agency might have something to say, and other officials might be disappointed, but at the very least, we aren’t going to criticize you over something like that. And our fans won’t either.”

 

“…….”

 

“We’re human; everyone makes mistakes. I’ll make a mistake one day, too. Jegal hyung, Wooyoung hyung, everyone will slip up at least once. The problem is what happens after the mistake.”

 

“…….”

 

“Does anyone remember what we just did before coming down? It was the day we won 1st place on our first public broadcast, it was an encore stage—does anyone actually remember what we did?”

 

“…….”

 

Without realizing it, my voice rose.

 

‘No, this won’t do. I shouldn’t talk like this.’

 

If I kept talking, I felt like my anger would rise in a gradient. I wasn’t sure why I was so heated. I just felt myself becoming emotional. By my own judgment, I was right on the verge of losing my temper.

 

I could feel Kim Taeyeol, who had experienced the real Lee Unha before, sending me a look telling me to be careful. Since Kim Haejun’s reaction also didn’t look good, there was no need to maintain this aggressive stance. Rather than pushing hard, maybe a different approach would be better.

 

Speaking with a slightly regretful expression and look in my eyes would be easier for Haejun and the others to digest. It was a somewhat sudden shift in attitude, but….

 

“I… I was actually really looking forward to that encore stage.”

 

I decided to switch tactics and show disappointment instead. Instead of blindly confronting them, I judged it better to take a step back, comfort Kim Haejun, and help him reorganize his mental state.

 

“We talked before about how we’d work really hard on the encore if we won 1st. It was an encore after winning on our first terrestrial show… it was a place to express gratitude to the fans, but in the end, we just kept thinking about that mistake, trying to fix it, and it feels like we came down without doing anything on stage, so I’m a bit disappointed….”

 

“Ah….”

 

“Making a mistake is fine, Haejun hyung.”

 

“…….”

 

“That’s why the agency exists—to clean up things like this. The company will release a statement on their own anyway. They were going to start promotions soon too, so even if you hadn’t slipped up here… everyone would have found out soon anyway.”

 

“Uh… yeah.”

 

“Honestly, they might even think it worked out well and start putting out articles about it.”

 

“…….”

 

“And regarding… the pressure you’re feeling about the album work, you don’t need to feel that burdened. I actually feel sorry for pushing you too hard.”

 

When I gave a subtle signal, Kim Taeyeol and Jung Taehee rushed in.

 

“Right. Haejun. What do you gain by dwelling on a mistake? Let’s just act like nothing happened.”

 

“Exactly, Haejun hyung. I’m sorry for putting too much pressure on you.”

 

The other members also began encouraging Kim Haejun once more.

 

“The others are right.”

 

“We’ll all help you, Haejun hyung. Nothing happened.”

 

It was a rather textbook sort of encouragement, but it would probably help. Compared to the truly serious problems that existed, any arguments or issues inside this room were honestly trivial.

 

The real problem was elsewhere.

 

‘Public opinion.’

 

Yes, the public sentiment.

 

While Director Oh, who arrived late, was cautioning Kim Haejun about his mistake and talking to other company executives on the phone about how to handle the accident, Lee Unha immediately pulled out his phone. Naturally, it was to see how the public was viewing the incident that just occurred.

 

‘It shouldn’t be up already, right?’

 

[What’s happening?]

[Trending in South Korea]

[#FantasiaEncore]

[12,524 posts]

 

‘Wait, it’s already trending?’

 

[Trending in South Korea]

[#LeeUnhaCryingEncore]

[10,283 posts]

 

‘Ah, thank goodness. The crying encore is trending too.’

 

[Trending in South Korea]

[#FantasiaFullAlbum]

[9,554 posts]

 

‘And even….’

 

[Trending in South Korea]

[#KimHaejun]

[1,784 posts]

 

‘Kim Haejun? Does something like this normally spread that fast?’

 

[Trending in South Korea]

[#KimHaejunWithdraw]

 

‘What kind of nonsense is this? Already jumping to withdrawal?’

 

Absurd posts aside, it really drove home just how much Fantasia’s influence had grown. I never imagined that something that happened just moments ago would already be heating up that SNS.

 

There were countless related posts too. It felt as though, ever since the music show ended, the entire internet was talking about nothing but Fantasia.

 

In the midst of that….

 

‘How on earth did this turn into ‘Kim Haejun should leave the group’? What happened for things to escalate this far?’

 

I wondered if there was something else I didn’t know about. Of course, that specific hashtag didn’t seem to be a massive trend yet, but the fact that such words were circulating at all was a problem. For now, I hurriedly tapped on the ‘Kim Haejun withdrawal’ talk….

 

[Acorn @DOTORI113: [Video of Kim Haejun encore stage] Una is trying so hard to hold back tears and carry the encore alone, but what is this guy doing? He’s doing nothing. Guess he’s already lost his rookie mindset? Mentioning the full album in the acceptance speech was such a nuisance to the members and the team; I bet Fantasia going straight into a full album was all because of Kim Haejun’s greed. You could see he was intoxicated with being a musician even in <TOP9>ㅋ ]

 

Absurd posts entered my vision.

 

↔ Reposted by Acorn 1 minute ago

[Chestnut @DDDD14019: I’m an employee at <The World>. I couldn’t stand watching anymore, so I’m saying a few words.]

[1. It’s an open secret inside that Kim Haejun has Artist Disease.]

[2. Pushing for the full album unreasonably was entirely Kim Haejun’s will. The other members tried to stop him (especially Una), but they say everyone was eventually persuaded by the talk of having to make our album.]

[3. No one knows exactly when the full album is coming out; they say they prioritize quality so it could take over 5 months.]

[4. Minimizing fan meetings is also entirely because of Kim Haejun.]

[5. Ultimately, the <Fantasia> members are the victims; to prevent a hiatus, they’ll likely have to go into solo activities or balance other work.]

 

‘What kind of bullshit is this? Seriously? Why are these nonsensical posts trending? No, why are people believing this?’

 

[Acorn @DOTORI113: I knew he’d blow up eventually, and here it isㅋ]

 

‘Are you… from the [TOP9] fandom? Is that it?’

 

It was an account that seemed to have been created just moments ago. A throwaway account made specifically to attack Kim Haejun in a calculated, one-sided smear campaign.

 

‘You’re really from that side, aren’t you?’

 

It was a suspicion that was hard to ignore.